Electronic gaming platform having object oriented remote control

ABSTRACT

Electronic gaming system with main monitor displaying public part of game and several terminals, each operating in gaming or controller mode. In gaming mode the terminal displays private parts of the game to user, and user&#39;s actions control object on terminal. In controller mode, main display is replicated on terminal display, and user&#39;s actions on private terminal are replicated on main display. Example, moving tile on the terminal will send “move tile” to move the same tile on the main monitor and all other terminals. The terminals support zoom and board shift to access any part of the bigger board. It also supports store and forward functions, enabling user to prepare next move privately before sending to main monitor. When the terminal is in controller mode, its processor may constantly synchronize the view of the terminal with the main monitor.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/612,637, filed on Nov. 4, 2009 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,226,476, and whichclaims priority benefit from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser.No. 61/193,189, filed on Nov. 4, 2008.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to a multi-player, multi-screensdigital gaming platform for enabling digitally playing a multi-playersocial games in multiple screens possibly running on different hardwareplatforms.

The use of “social games” refers to inter personal social gamesincluding digital versions of traditional and new board, card, dice, andsimilar games.

2. Related Arts

Electronic augmentation of traditional board games has been an activearea of research and product development, as electronic board gamesoffer certain additional advantages without affecting, and oftenenhancing, the fundamental enjoyment factors of the traditional games.Some of the advantages include enhanced player interaction support,compact board footprint for playing and storing the game, ability toload multiple games on the same board, no loose game-pieces to be lost,easy on-demand access to digitally stored information regarding gamerules and strategy suggestions, real-time game status updates, etc.These advantages are applicable to both single-player board games, andmulti-player board games.

Traditional multi-player board and card games, such as, Scrabble,Monopoly, Risk, Chess, Texas Hold'em etc., and more recent designerboard games, such as, Settlers of Catan, Apples to Apples, Uno etc.,promote live social interaction among two or more players. The socialinteraction experience is different from the experience of playingcomputer or electronic games designed to enable a single player tointeract with a machine and/or Internet players. Often acollaborative/competitive multi-player board game experience is moredesired by the players than the isolation typically associated with acomputer/electronic game.

Therefore, what is needed is a crossover gaming platform that offers themerits of conventional games, while adding digital features that enrichthe game-playing experience, as well as provide practical conveniences,such as versatility and ease of storage.

SUMMARY

The following summary is included in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some aspects and features of the invention. Thissummary is not an extensive overview of the invention and as such it isnot intended to particularly identify key or critical elements of theinvention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purposeis to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as aprelude to the more detailed description that is presented below.

The present application discloses recommended processes and systems forthe implementation of multi players, multi screens gaming system. Thegaming system is suitable for playing locally traditional and new board,card, dice, and similar social games, but it can be applied for othertype of games and social applications.

Various embodiments of the gaming system involve hardware and softwareimplementations. The hardware implementation includes board and terminalcomponents, which may be proprietary or conventional. The softwareimplementation includes board and terminal subsystems. The softwareimplementation may also include dedicated user interface and softwaredevelopment services. The software implementation is transparent to thehardware deployments; therefore the software implementation requires OSspecific adaptation.

Hardware

“Board”

The purpose of the gaming system “Board” is to display the shared partof the game (e.g. the Monopoly board). The “Board” can be horizontal andcontrolled by touch gestures (similar to Tablet) or vertical/frontal andcontrolled by custom controller. Multiple boards can be assembledtogether physically or logically by the “gaming system software” (seedescription below) to provide bigger shared area. The “Board” can beproprietary or conventional horizontal or frontal display includingtablet, pc monitor, TV monitor, etc. In case the “Board” hardware is“TV”, it requires attached processing unit that can run standard OS andwireless connectivity to the internet and locally to communicate withthe players terminals. Such processing unit can be PC, Media Center(e.g. Apple TV™), Game Console (e.g. Sony PlayStation™, Microsoft XBOX™,or Nintendo Wii™), Set top box (e.g. Tivo™), or embedded unit on the TVitself.

“Terminal”

The purpose of the gaming system “Terminal” is to display private partsof the game (e.g. the Scrabble tiles or Texas Hold'em cards), to performprivate activities (e.g. consulting English dictionary in Scrabble,taking notes in the Clue game, or Simulate few chess moves), and tocontrol frontal “Boards”. The scope of the invention is not limited bythe number of game terminals. Also, any type of smart personal devicewith a display, such as, a smart phone (e.g. iPhone™), a PDA (e.g. iPodTouch™), a personal media player (e.g. Nintendo DST™), etc., may be usedas the game terminal, as long as the device is running the “Terminalsubsystem software” (sometimes also referred to as “augmentation layer”)that is described below.

Dedicated Hardware Design

The purpose of dedicated hardware is to provide optimized experience ofdigital board and user terminals in dimensions and usability. Thededicated hardware is portable and packages together in compact way atleast 1 board and 4 terminals. The dedicated hardware may include fewboards and physical connectors to attach them. The physical connectorsmay be used to exchange data and power. In case of multiple boards, someof the boards may be dumb, used for surface extension (both display andinputs), and are fully controlled by their hosting board. The dedicatedhardware supports single charging point of all the system components.

Special Purpose Hardware Gadgets

The gaming system may include special purpose hardware gadgets that cancommunicate their outcome over wireless communication and impact thegame play. Examples of such gadgets are physical dice, game pieces, sandclock, or “live” avatar that has unique role in the game.

Software

The “gaming system software” is in essence abstract operating systemthat consists of “Board subsystem” and “Terminal subsystem”, runs onvariety of hardware platforms, and implements hardware agnostic gamingservices.

Objects Exchange

The “gaming system software” provides seamless movement of digitalobjects between the system screens, including board-to-board,board-to-terminal, terminal-to-board, and terminal-to-terminal. Theobjects exchange depends on the game play rules. Objects can move as is(e.g. Monopoly money) or follow some transformation rule (e.g. flipScrabble tile, show Poker card). Objects exchange can trigger some gamerule (e.g. decide on the winner in Card games). Object exchange cancreate unique experience like dice shake on the “Terminal” (using theaccelerometer) that virtually continues on the “Board” taking intoaccount the magnitude and direction of force applied by the user action.Example of game objects are tiles, cards, chips, money, drawings,avatars, etc.

“Board Subsystem”

The “Board subsystem” provides system administration, playersmanagement, and game management services. The “Board subsystem” loadsgames from local and web game repositories. The “Board subsystem”enforces the user rights to the games and manages the accounting betweenthe user and games providers. The “Board subsystem” manages intelligentcache of game assets and automatic updates of game features. The “Boardsubsystem” displays the shared part of the games and handles the gameplay. The “Board subsystem” provides set of gestures and features toenrich the game play, including drag-and-drop, flip an object, spin anobject, rotates the board to the user side (may be applied automaticallyas part of the game play), etc. The “Board subsystem” utilizes the fullscreen for the game play and enables to access the system navigation andconfiguration functions through floating dashboard that can be launchedanytime from pre-defined hot key (e.g. <Esc>) or hot spot on the gameboard, e.g. the bottom left corner. The “Board subsystem” handles thecommunication and assets exchange with the players' terminals andoptionally with additional boards. The “Board subsystem” manages list ofpermanents and ad-hoc players including personal preferences (name,avatar, color, etc.), favorite games, and statistics (for each game: #of plays, wins, looses, points, etc.). The player personalizedinformation may be imported automatically in case of ad-hoc players withsmart phones and PDAs. The “Board subsystem” publishes its availabilityand therefore can be discovered by other “Board subsystems” and“Terminal subsystems”. The other “party” requests to join the board (incase of “Terminal”) or share the board display (in case of other“Board”), and the board user needs to approve it. That process isnecessary in case of multiple boards' environment like video arcades,game board Café', etc.

The “Board subsystem” is the center of the game system and providessoftware services to its satellites “Terminal subsystems” includingnecessary game assets (the “Terminal subsystem” is not dealing withgames downloads or licensing), list of known players (for the link ofplayer to terminal), list of available colors (as part of the playerpersonalization or game setup process), list of other terminals (toenable terminal-to-terminal communication) etc.

Multiple Boards

The “Board subsystem” discovers automatically other “Board subsystems”that it can utilizes their display area. The “Board subsystem” requiresthe approval of the other “Board subsystems” to utilize their displayarea. In case that multiple “Board subsystems” agree to share resources,the “Board subsystem” that starts a game, take control on others andhandle the game flow.

Multiple “Board subsystems” can work in few configurations, 1) createbigger view of the same skin where each “Board subsystem” display andget inputs on part of the display, 2) enable multiple boards' games,e.g. playing few Monopoly boards and create expanded game play, 3)enable peer-to-peer boards games, where each player enjoy full boardexperience in games like Battleships or Stratego, 4) create exactduplication of the game board to support many players experience, maybein different locations, etc.

Positioning Process

The “Board subsystem” manages the players' position on the board. Theprocess may start with the collection of players with terminals or thedefinition of current players on the board (e.g. in case of Chess theterminal is not mandatory). Players positioning view shows a “symbol”for each player and let the users drag their symbols to their preferredside on the board. The process supports any number of players that canshare the same side. The above process defines the area in which theplayer objects will be exchanged with the board, e.g. when he/she droptiles from his terminal to the board, or drags cards from the board tohis terminal.

In many games, the “Board subsystem” manages the turn of the players.When the turn is well defined, multiple players can share the entireside for drag-and-drop actions (vs. using fraction of the side dependson the number of players).

The above process is necessary before any game starts and can be alteredduring the game. The defined positions and drag-and-drop areas may beviewed during the game as names, colors, avatars, and/or playerspictures as additional “players' layer” on top of the board area and mayhave different variants on different games.

In some games, when it's important that all players will know each otherassets/status (e.g. chips in Poker, cash in Monopoly, or score in manygames), the “players' layer” may show in addition to their names, colorsetc., their assets/status.

Alternatively, the above players' details can be defined as “players'box” that can be dragged to any area in the board and thereafter used asthe players' “gate” to the board (e.g. in Poker it makes more sense toposition the “players' box” adjacent to the table vs. the frame of thedisplay).

“Terminal Subsystem”

The “Terminal subsystem” searches for available “Boards” in the area andenables the user to connect to one or few of them. The “Terminalsubsystem” enables the user to personalize his name, symbol, color, andposition on the “Board”. The “Terminal subsystem” receives the gameassets from the “Board subsystem”. The “Terminal subsystem” displays theplayer private data (e.g. Tiles in Scrabble or Poker Cards). The“Terminal subsystem” provides private actions like browsing electronicdictionary, game rules, or potential game strategies. For example, itenables the user to take private notes related to the game (e.g. in theClue game). In another example, it enables the user to simulateprivately potential game steps (e.g. in Chess) without the steps beingimplemented on the actual game played. As the game progresses, the usermay activate one or more of the simulated moves, so that they areactually performed in the game played. Alternatively, the user maychange the simulated moves according to new moves that were actuallyenacted in the game played. The simulated moves can be saved in thememory, e.g., RAM, and the processor can enable the user to switchbetween “real” game view and “simulated” game view. The “Terminalsubsystem” exchanges game objects with the board or other terminals. The“Terminal subsystem” enables in some games to share private informationwith other players' terminals, either by sharing the entire view orexchanging individual objects and widgets. The “Terminal subsystem”supports touch gestures and hand writing; the hand writing drawings andlists can be exchanged as other game objects.

Remote Control

The “Terminal subsystem” may include remote mouse and custom controllerof the board view. The custom controller can be generic by sharing theentire view (like Webex™) or game oriented by exchanging the gamegestures and actions (e.g. moving a tile on the controller will send“move tile action” to move the same tile on the shared board). Tocomplete the experience, the “Board subsystem” needs to inform the“Terminal subsystem” about changes on the physical board, and the“Terminal subsystem” in exchange should update its user miniature viewof the board. The custom controller support zoom and board shift toaccess easily any part of the bigger board. The terminal controllersupports zoom and board shift to easily access any part of the mainboard. It also supports store and forward function that enables the userto prepare the next move privately before sending it to the main board.When the terminal is set for a view of the main board, its processor mayconstantly synchronize the user miniature view of the main board withthe main board subsystem.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, exemplify the embodiments of the presentinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain andillustrate principles of the invention. The drawings are intended toillustrate major features of the exemplary embodiments in a diagrammaticmanner. The drawings are not intended to depict every feature of actualembodiments nor relative dimensions of the depicted elements, and arenot drawn to scale.

FIG. 1 illustrates various possible implementations of the inventivemulti-screen, multi-player gaming system.

FIG. 1A illustrates components of an example game system with a maingame board and multiple game terminals, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 1B illustrates components of an example game system with two maingame boards (one on the table and one mounting to the wall) and multiplepersonal game terminals, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 1C-1E illustrate the player positioning feature according toembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 1F illustrates a control mode feature of the personal terminalunit.

FIG. 1G illustrates a high-level schematic representation of adistributed software engine enabling the digital board games, accordingto an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates interrelationship between various hardware andsoftware components of a game system, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of some of the hardwarecomponents of a main game board, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example of a process executed by the CPU.

FIG. 4-5 illustrate various external looks of a game board display unitthat can be removably coupled to other game board display units,according to embodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 6A-6B and 7A-7B illustrate how a plurality of game board displayunits can be coupled together to extend game playing surface, accordingto embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7C illustrates an embodiment of the game wherein the main boardincludes facility to contain the terminals.

FIG. 8 illustrates a schematic diagram of some of the hardwarecomponents of a game terminal, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8A illustrates an example of a process executed by the CPU forinitiating a game session.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example gaming system where a main multi-unit gameboard communicates with a plurality of mobile devices, according to anembodiment of the present invention.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments of electronic gaming systems, including the relevanthardware and software, are disclosed. In general, the disclosed systemcan be implemented on dedicated, specifically designed hardware, oncommonly available hardware, or on mixture of dedicated and commonlyavailable hardware. In this sense, the invention provides anorchestration system that manages communications and processes among thevarious hardware pieces which form the multi-screens aspect of themulti-player gaming system. The orchestration system can be implementedpurely in software running on, e.g., general purpose computers, videogame consoles, PDA's etc., (when no dedicated hardware is used), or incombination of software and dedicated hardware. The inventive systemintroduces an augmentation layer that enables required transactionsamong the various screen units. Therefore, the inventive system can beconceptualized as an augmentation layer running on top of the native OS,and a game application running on top of the augmentation layer. In thisrespect, the augmentation layer may be generic and indifferent to thespecific game being played. In addition to features described in detailsherein, this implementation also enables the system to operate onvarious platforms, wherein each platform is running a differentoperating systems (OS). Also, in certain implementation a generic coreenables certain generic actions required for all games. Once a playerselects a game, the core takes appropriate actions to load elementsrequired for the specifically selected game.

According to certain aspects of the invention, the system may beimplemented as a portable electronic gaming system allowing a pluralityof players to play a game on a plurality of screens. When the system isimplemented as a dedicated hardware, the system comprises a game boardhaving a main display screen for displaying a portion of the game layoutthat is shared by the plurality of players, and a plurality of personalgame terminals, each personal game terminal assigned to a respectiveplayer and having an auxiliary display screen for displaying a portionof the game layout that is associated with the respective player. Thesystem enables communication between the main display and the personalgame terminals, and optionally also among the game terminals directly.The system also enables seamlessly transferring digitized game objectsbetween the respective auxiliary display screens and the main displayscreen, or among the auxiliary display screens, as triggered by, e.g., agame step or in response to touch-based interactive inputs received fromthe plurality of players. The system may also transfer or initiate codedrules associated with the transferred digitized game objects. Forexample, the rules can indicate where on the screen the digitized gameobject should appear, at what size should it be displayed, specialanimation that should accompany the transfer of the digitized gameobject, etc.

According to another aspect of the invention, the electronic gamingsystem can also communicate with and implement a game using conventionalhardware. For example, iPod™, iPhones™, PDA's, smart phones, etc.,(generally referred to herein as “smart device”) can serve as thepersonal game terminals and communicate with the dedicated hardware orother types of conventional hardware (e.g., Wii™, X-Box™, etc.). This isenabled, at least in part, by the inventive augmentation layer thatenables transactions among hardware running on different platforms, andby the game application operating over the augmentation layer. Asbefore, this arrangement allows for digitized game objects to moveseamlessly among the plurality of personal game terminals and the mainboard in response to game rules/steps or interactive inputs receivedfrom the individual players.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, the gaming system mayutilize a conventional display, such as a plasma or LCD television ormonitor as the main screen, and utilizes dedicate, conventional, or amix of dedicated and conventional personal game terminals.

FIG. 1 illustrates various possible implementations of the inventivemulti-screen, multi-player gaming system. Elements that can function asa user terminal are indicated by (T), while elements that can functionas the main board or console are indicated by (B). Shown at 100 is asystem that is made of dedicated hardware, i.e., dedicated gaming board102 and dedicated terminals 104. The board 102 and terminals 102 canfunction as a complete gaming system and are capable of communicatingamong each other. On the other hand, a conventional smart phone or aportable gaming system can also be used as user terminals andcommunicate with any of the boards shown in FIG. 1, provided that theseterminals run the software modules described below. Similarly, aconventional PC, Tablet PC, set-top box, or a TV (either a “smart” TV ora regular TV functioning as a monitor and coupled to a set-top box, PC,conventional gaming console, etc.), may function as the main board,provided that these terminals run the software modules described below.Communication can be provided between and among any of the terminals andmain board shown in FIG. 1.

Other embodiments and advantages of the present invention are discussedin the subsequent detailed description section.

Overview

The present application discloses a novel digitally-enhanced gamingplatform for playing existing and new social games. A typical gamingsystem comprises a main game display module and may have one or morepersonal game terminals having auxiliary game display modules andcommunicating with the main game display module. The personal gameterminals may also communicate with each other. Various personal gameterminals are enabled to exchange game-related information with othermodules and to seamlessly move digitized game-specific pieces/objects(e.g., cards, tokens, tiles etc.) to other modules or to the main gamedisplay.

In certain embodiments, games can be played with shared publicinformation displayed on the main game display module, and individualpublic/private information displayed on the auxiliary game displaymodules. In other embodiments, there is no main game display module, buta plurality of inter-communicating auxiliary game display modules areassigned to individual players.

The personal game terminals may be handheld devices, such as, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDA), or dedicated personal gameterminals assigned to individual players. The main game display modulemay be a portable dedicated digital game board, or may be part of anexisting appliance, such as, a television screen or computer monitorcoupled to a computer or game console (such as Nintendo Wii or MicrosoftXbox game consoles) running an appropriate gaming software. The maingame display module may have other configurations, such as, atouch-screen-enabled tablet PC, or a laptop computer with a keypad,touchpad, trackball, etc. The digital board may be designed to be foldedfor portability and ease of storage. The main game display module may bea combination of one or more existing appliances and a dedicated digitalgame board.

The main game display module may be a single display unit, or aplurality of display units that can be coupled to each other. Coupling aplurality of display units to form the main game display module has theadditional advantage of creating increased shared playing area that canaccommodate more visual information related to the game. The pluralityof display units may be physically pre-attached to each other by somefastening mechanism, such as, a hinge, a flexible backing tape, etc., orthey may be removably attachable to each other, as required. When theplurality of display units are aligned together, the systemautomatically identifies the new structure and applies the game layoutover the combined display units, forming a larger unified game surface.In one embodiment, a plurality of removably attachable display units canbe used in at least the following ways: 1) two or more display units areused for public display, wherein digital game pieces can be seamlesslymoved from one public screen to another, e.g., player finishes the gametrack on one public screens and continues to play on a second publicscreen, 2) one or more display units are combined to form a biggerdisplay module displaying the shared playing area; 3) one or moredisplay units are used individually as auxiliary game display modules,where the game does not necessarily need a shared playing area; 4) twoor more screens that are duplicate of each other—this is especiallybeneficial for games played in teams, wherein each team receives onepublic screen having the same graphics as on the other public screens;5) two or more screens that are calculated-duplicate of each other,i.e., part is duplicate and part is not according to certain gamerules—this, for example, can be implemented for playing Submarines,where part of the screen is duplicated, but other part is hidden; etc.

A processor within the main display unit can implement a positioningprocess. According to this process, the processor of the main unit mapsthe physical location of every game unit, i.e., public and personal gameunits, with respect to the main unit and other units. To illustrate, theprocessor can utilize a North-South, East-West grid centered at thecenter of the main public screen. If four players with four personalgame units are seated around the main screen, then the processoridentifies each personal unit and maps them according to theNorth-South, East-West grid. To enable this mapping, the processorestablishes a communication protocol to recognize each personalized gameunit and to approve-disapprove its joining the game. If the personalunit was approved to join the game, the unit establishes a physicallocation for that unit. For example, the processor may display a symbolidentifying this unit at a certain coordinate on the main screen. Whenthe user of that unit is actually seated in a different location orwould like to move to a different location, the user can “drag” thesymbol on the main screen to a different location.

The above process is not limited to 4 players and supports theallocation of few players to the same side with virtual separationbetween them (e.g. Half-Half). Furthermore, the same process isapplicable without physical game units, in case the entire game play ishappening on the same board (e.g. Chess). In such case, virtualimage/avatar of each player is used to define his/her position aroundthe board.

As mentioned above, digital game pieces can be seamlessly moved amongthe various private and public screens. For example, a user may move agame piece, e.g., a card, from his personal unit to the main unit using,e.g., an assigned button, softkey, or hand gesture. In this respect, thedigital game pieces can be grouped into two type of digital game pieces:“dumb” game pieces, i.e., digital game pieces that have basically onlygraphical representation but no function, e.g., cards, chess gamepieces, etc., and active or “intelligent” pieces, which have internalfunction, akin to a widget or applet, e.g., die, warrior, etc.Additionally, when a game piece is transferred from one terminal toanother, whether personal or public, a rule set is implemented to thatspecific transfer. The rule set may include, for example, the locationfor displaying the object on the transferee screen (for example, at anindicated place on the public main game board, at a location closest tothe player transferring the piece, etc.), the size of the object todisplay (for example, enlarge or reduce depending if moving from a smallto large screen or vice versa), any motion of the piece (e.g., if movinga covered card from main screen to private screen, flip the card toreveal its face), enact action per game rule, (e.g., when moving moneyin Monopoly from private screen to bank at public screen, action can beactivated, e.g., game piece goes out of jail if payment was made to getout of jail), activate audio corresponding to the game piece, etc.

Combining the positioning concept with the seamless motion of gamepieces, according to one embodiment, during the positioning process theprocessor displays “gates” on the main screen for each player. The gatesmay be displayed graphically in any shape or form, as long as each gateis identified as corresponding to a personal unit or playerparticipating in the game. Then, when a digital game piece is moved fromthe public screen to a personal screen, it is graphically moved on thepublic screen towards the gate corresponding to that specific personalunit. The reverse is also true: when a user moves a game piece from apersonal unit onto the public screen, the game piece “enters” the publicscreen through the gate associated with that particular personal unit.

Combining the above with the natural game turns enables the players touse their entire side to exchange objects with the board, as comparedwith sharing the side with other players wherein each player gets asmaller defined gate.

Various Playing Configurations

The gaming system components can be used in different playingconfigurations allowing the player(s) to play different type of games.

Examples of different playing configurations are discussed below withspecific game examples for each. In these examples, without limiting thescope of the invention, a dedicated digital game board is recited as themain game display module, and dedicated game terminals are recited asthe auxiliary game display modules, for illustrative purposes.

Single-Unit or Multi-Unit Game Board with No Personal Game Terminal

In this configuration, the game is played using only one game board,where one or more players play a game using a touch screen (or keypad,trackball, joystick, touchpad etc.) on the game board. The game boarddisplays shared “public” playing area. The game board may be a singledisplay unit. Alternatively, as discussed before, two or more displayunits may be combined together to expand the display area of the gameboard. Examples for games suitable for this configuration are Snakes andLadders, Memory game, Chess etc.

In an extension of this configuration, multiple shared “public” gameboards may be used. Examples of this configuration are strategy gameslike “the Settlers of Catan”. Since a large public playing surface isoften required, a multi-unit game board is often suitable for thisconfiguration and game pieces may be moved seamlessly from one mainboard on one display unit to another main board on a second displayunit.

Single-Unit or Multi-Unit Game Board with Personal Game Terminals

In this typical configuration, the single-unit or multi-unit game boardis used for the game's shared “public” playing area, which all theplayers can see and use, and the personal game terminals are used foreach player's personal playing area. The “personal” playing area may be“public”, i.e., visible to other players, or may be “private”, i.e.,exposed only to a specific player and hidden from the other players.Personal “private” playing area may be selectively accessible bycollaborators, but not by the competitors. The personal game terminalsexchange information with the game board.

Examples for games suitable for this configuration are Monopoly, wherethe terminals are visible to all the players, yet hold the respectiveplayer's properties information (such as the money stack of a player),and Scrabble, where the terminals hold the respective player's lettertiles and this information is hidden from the rest of the players, andmany card games, where the terminals hold the respective player'sprivate cards.

Personal game terminals may be used for a variety of functions,including, but not limited to, privately browsing game rules, consultinggame strategies from available suggestions, consulting references (e.g.,looking up a dictionary in a Scrabble game), taking private notes (e.g.in the Clue game), planning privately the next game steps, andoptionally, for remotely controlling the game-specific pieces/objects onthe main board.

Multiple Game Boards Used as Personal Game Terminals

In this configuration, there are a plurality of single-unit ormulti-unit game boards. The game boards exchange information with oneanother. Personal game terminal functionalities may be available in eachof the game boards, when each player holds his/her own board, and thereis no separate main display module. In this configuration, the “public”playing area is displayed in all the single-unit or multi-unit gameboards acting as personal game terminals, and the “private” playingarea, if any, is superimposed or co-located with the public playingarea.

Examples for games suitable for this configuration are Battleships. Inthe Battleship game, the public playing area is the main grid of thegame, which is seen by all the participating players in their“Terminals”. But, on top of that, individual players see their “private”game-related information hidden from the other players. Stratego isanother example game suitable for this configuration.

Example Gaming System

FIG. 1A shows one example of a gaming system 100, according to anembodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the systemcomprises a main board 102 and several personal game terminals, herefour are shown, 104 a-104 d. Each of the main board 102 and terminals104 a-104 d runs a piece of software, indicated as QS, that enablesexecution and orchestration of various games, as selected by the users.In some circumstances, a general device, such as a PDA, smartphone,etc., can be used as a personal game terminal. In such a case, as shownin the callout of terminal 104 b, an augmentation layer AS runs on thenative OS, and a game application GA runs on the augmentation layer. Theaugmentation layer and game application can be conceptualized as the QSsoftware.

In one example for implementing the system of FIG. 1A, the main gamedisplay module is a dedicated digital game board 102. Board 102 is usedfor displaying the game layout, such as, the grid in a Scrabble game,and for enabling ‘public’ game related activities, such as, movingpublicly visible Scrabble tiles and composing words on the game grid.Board 102 may be a TFT-LCD (Thin film transistor-liquid crystal display)or LED panel digitally emulating a printed game board. Game objects orgame-specific pieces (dices, tokens, cards etc.) are emulated by digitalgraphic images. The game board 102 may be placed horizontally allowingseveral players to sit around it and play just like they would have donewhen playing with the paper-printed version of the board game. The board102 may comprise more than one display units. Each display unit iscapable of being coupled to another unit even if no other unit isphysically connected to it at a given time instance. When the multipledisplay units are physically or logically aligned and coupled together,the system automatically identifies the new expanded available displaystructure and applies the game layout over the combined display units,forming a larger unified playing surface, duplicating the main image,partly-duplicating the main image, etc.

The game terminals 104 a-d are used by each player for ‘private’ gameactivities, such as, privately viewing his/her current set of tiles in aScrabble game or Cards in Texas Holdem. Though four terminals are shownin FIG. 1A, the scope of the invention is not limited by the number ofgame terminals. Also, any type of smart personal device with a display,such as, a smart phone, a PDA, a personal media player, etc., may beused as the game terminal 104, as long as the device is running the QSsoftware so as to be configured to communicate with the game board 102.

Players may interact with the system modules by using finger gestures(or a stylus) on the touch-screen on one or both of the game board 102and the terminals 104. Alternatively, a keypad, a set of buttons, ajoystick, a trackball etc., may be used to receive player input. Themovement of game specific pieces, known collectively as game objects,between the game board 102 and the game terminals 104 should beseamless. For example, a Scrabble tile's digital image may be ‘dragged’from a game terminal 104 and placed on the main Scrabble grid on thegame board 102 using, e.g., a hand gesture on the touch screen ofterminal 104.

According to one embodiment, movement of physical object can also beincorporated into the game. For example, a dice 103 is equipped with atransmitted device, such as Bluetooth or other transmission protocols ormethods. Once the dice lands, it transmits the value shown by the dice.The main board 102 includes a receiver that receives the transmissionfrom the dice and uses the information to advance the game. A similarimplementation may be made with, e.g., sand clock 107, game pieces, etc.

In an alternative embodiment, a role of a dice is implemented usingtransmission from the personal terminal 104 to the main board 102. Insuch an implementation, an accelerometer may be embedded within thepersonal terminal 104, so that when the user shakes the terminal itsimulates shaking of the dice. Then, when a user makes a motion as if to“spill” the dice onto the main board game 102 (this can be sensed using,e.g., an inclinometer embedded in the terminal), the personal terminal104 transmits to the main board 102 a transfer command that may includean identification of the dice, its speed of role, the strength of theuser's motion, etc, whereby the personal terminal 104 shows a graphic ofthe dice falling off, while the main board 102 uses the data transmittedfrom the terminal 104 to show graphics of the dice rolling onto the mainboard 102 at the appropriate force and direction. The dice may also rollfrom one board to another, when more than one board are used for themain display.

In one example, when the main board is implemented as a television orremote monitor, the personal units operate in two modes: game mode andcontrol mode. In game mode, the personal unit displays the personalscreen of the game, and command entries of the user affect his/herpersonal terminal. For example, in card game the unit will display thepersonal cards of the player and the player may reorient the order ofthe cards shown on his/her personal display, add/remove cards fromhis/her personal display, etc. In control mode the unit is used tocontrol the objects displayed on the main screen, e.g. to shuffle thecard stack on the main board and distribute cards to the variousplayers.

Each one of the game modules, i.e., main board 102 and personalterminals 104, communicates with the other modules using either wirelessor wired communication or shared memory interface to exchange gamerelated information, timing information, and control information.

The gaming system 100 may have a games repository (shown in FIG. 2), sothat the same hardware can be used to play a variety of games. Gamesrepository may be coupled to a web-based game repository 110 accessiblevia the Internet 108, allowing players to download games into thesystem. Games repository may also reside on local permanent storagemedia (e.g., a hard drive), or removable storage media (e.g., a CD, anSD memory card, a USB flash memory device etc.) configured to load gamesinto the gaming system 100. The removable storage media insertion slot(shown as input slot 212 in FIG. 2) may be built into the board 102, ormay be on an external work station 106 coupled to the board 102. Workstation 106 may also serve as the gateway to the Internet connectivityfor game download, if the board 102 itself is not Internet-enabled. Workstation 106 may also serve as the platform for developing and testingnew games, or adding/modifying several features of existing games,managing individual player profiles, etc. All the activities thatrequire for the ongoing usage of the system including playersmanagement, users' favorites, handling terminals positioning and themerchandise of games content are available directly from the game boarduser interface.

The above configuration tasks are hidden during the game play andavailable through floating dashboard that can be launched anytime frompre defined key (e.g. <Esc>) or hot spot on the board (e.g. bottom leftcorner).

For a further illustration, FIG. 1B depicts an example of a set-upwherein a first main board 102 a is a dedicated hardware placed on atable, and a TV set 102 b is used as the second main board. Two personalunits are used in this example, unit 104 a being a dedicatedhardware—here attached to the main board 102 a so as to receive powerfor charging its batteries—and unit 104 b being a standard PDA,smartphone, etc., running the QS software and communicating with mainboard 102 a wirelessly. Alternatively, the TV set may be connected tointelligent processing unit 116, which may be a pc, a media center, agame console, a set-top box, or embedded in the TV appliance. In such acase, the main board 102 a function is replaced by the processing unit116 running the QS software. The personal units 104 may communicate withthe board processing unit 116 wirelessly.

System Initiation

When the game is initiated, for example, from main board 102 a, theprocessor of main board 102 a publishes/broadcasts its existence andactivates its receiver to recognize any other main boards or personalunits in its neighborhood. For example, in the embodiment of FIG. 1B,the main board recognizes the presence of the second main screen 102 band may prompt the users to select whether they wish to extend the mainboard display to unit 102 b. If so, the processor may prompt the usersor use internal rules to determine how to extend the main screen intounit 102 b. That is, depending on the game selected by the users, unit102 b can be used to duplicate the screenshot of unit 102 a, to extendpart of the screenshot to unit 102 b, to “smartly-duplicate” to unit 102b, etc. Conversely, the main board may receive requests form other mainboards to serve as a secondary board. Upon receiving such a request themain board may prompt the user for approval. The main board also loadsthe game from local or remote sources.

When the main processor detects that wired unit 104 a is connected tothe main board 102 a, it may prompt the user whether to accept the unit104 a as a player. If so, the main processor may display a gate or othergraphical indication 112 a associated with unit 104 a. If the locationof graphics 112 a does not correspond to the physical layout of theplayers with respect to main board 102 a, the users may “drag” the gateto a different location on the main boards 102 a and 102 b. FIGS. 1C-1Eillustrate the player positioning feature according to embodiments ofthe invention. The “Board subsystem” manages the players' position onthe board. The process may start with the collection of players withterminals or the definition of current players on the board (e.g. incase of Chess the terminal is not mandatory). Players positioning viewshows a “symbol” for each player and let the users drag their symbols totheir preferred side on the board. The process supports any number ofplayers that can share the same side. For example, in FIG. 1C fiveplayers participate in the game, and each is depicted using a definedplayer's name and an image, which may be, e.g., a player's picture, anavatar, etc. In FIG. 1D, each player is assigned a different color, sothat they can be differentiated. FIG. 1E shows each player using acolored or shaded image. The above process may also define the area inwhich the player objects will be exchanged with the board, e.g. whenhe/she drop tiles from his terminal to the board, or drags cards fromthe board to his terminal.

In many games, the “Board subsystem” manages the turn of the players.When the turn is well defined, multiple players can share the entireside for drag-and-drop actions (vs. the case of using fraction of theside depends on the number of players).

The above process may be performed before any game starts and can bealtered during the game. The defined positions and drag-and-drop areasmay be viewed during the game as names, colors, avatars, and/or playerspictures as additional “players' layer” on top of the board area, asexemplified in FIGS. 1C-1E.

In some games, when it's important that all players will know each otherassets/status (e.g. chips in Poker, cash in Monopoly, or score in manygames), the “players' layer” may show in addition to their names, colorsetc., their assets/status.

Alternatively, the above players' details can be defined as “players'box” that can be dragged to any area in the board and thereafter used asthe players' “gate” to the board (e.g. in Poker it makes more sense toposition the “players' box” adjacent to the table vs. the frame of thedisplay, as illustrated in FIG. 1E). If the personal units are wireless,e.g., unit 104 b is wireless, they attempt to detect the main board andrequest to join its space, if approved, the same positioning processapply.

If the personal units are hosted on smart devices, it's the QS softwarerole to follow the same protocol, e.g. discover the board, request tojoin, and participate in the positioning process. It should be notedthat this “discovery and acceptance” process is especially important inlocations where many main boards are operating, such as in videoarcades, etc. In such situations, many smart devices may try tocommunicate with many available main boards. In order to ensure thatcommunication from each personal unit is directed to the proper mainboard, the unit must be “discovered and approved” by the main board.Once approval is granted, the personal unit can participate in a game onthat accepting board, and communications from that personal unit willnot affect any other main boards in the neighborhood. Additionally,during the discovery process, various actions germane to the game beingplayed may be executed. For example, if the main board determines thatthe particular personal unit has already participated in this game inthe past, it may interrogate the unit or its own memory for assetsremaining (e.g., weapons, lives, etc.) from the previous game and make anote of the list of assets and may send an update to the terminal unit.Conversely, if the unit has not previously participated, the main boardmay issue initial set of assets to the unit.

Once communication is established and a personal unit is accepted to thegame, the user can utilize the personal unit to control his/her actionsin the game, as described more fully below. Additionally, when the gameboard is displayed on the TV monitor 102 b, and a user wishes to take anaction on that board, e.g., move a game piece, it may be inconvenient torequire the user to get up and walk to the TV, or using the TV remotecontrol to perform the action. If the main board displayed on 102 b is aduplicate of what is displayed on 102 a, then the user may simply dragthe game piece on board 102 a. However, if it is not duplicate, thenaccording to a feature of the invention, the user may switch his/herpersonal unit to operate in a control mode, wherein action on thepersonal units affect the TV monitor 102 b. This feature is illustratedin FIG. 1F. To help the user, the display of the TV monitor 102 b may bereplicated on his personal terminal unit 104 b. Additionally, the usermay be able to “zoom in” on selected areas of the TV monitor that isdisplayed on his/her personal unit (shown in the left-hand zoom-indrawing), so as to make it easier to select a game piece. In this modethe personal unit may also function as a wireless mouse or other suchwireless input device. When the user returns the personal unit toterminal mode, action on his/her personal unit affects the game in thenormal manner as described herein.

When a personal unit has been accepted to the game and has communicationchannel established with the main board, it may request from the mainboard a list of all other connected personal units and their relevantdata. It may also be used be to communicate directly with otherconnected or unconnected personal units, for example to exchange gamepieces, to share views, etc. If a communication is established with apersonal unit that is not connected to the game/main board, the personalunit may send an invitation to the non-connected unit to join the game.

According to aspects of the invention, game pieces are moved seamlesslybetween each personal unit and the main boards, and optionally betweentwo or more personal units. When such an action takes place, transferrules are implemented. The rules may include instructions regarding thedisplay of the transferred piece, instructions regarding actions to betaken upon transfer of the piece, etc. For example, when moving a cardfrom unit 104 b to main board 102 b, the rules may include displayinganimation on unit 102 b, showing the card entering from gate 112 b andmoving to stack 114, as illustrate by the broken-line arrow in FIG. 1B.The action to be performed may include sounding an audio clip, playing avideo clip, issuing another card from the stack, calculating score, etc.

According to another feature of the invention, main board 102 a alsoserves as a charging hub. That is, when personal units 104 operate onrechargeable batteries, charging several units would requires the samenumber of wall outlets or a multi-outlet cable. Instead, according to afeature of the invention, main unit 102 a includes a charging controllercoupled to several outlets, so that each personal unit 104 may beconnected to the main unit 102 a for charging.

Working Modes for the Gaming System

The gaming system may support different working modes, controlled by thegame's underlying software, as will be described below. Some exampleworking modes are discussed here.

Single Board Mode

In this mode only one main game display unit comprises the game board102, and is used to display game layout and to receive player input.

Master-Dumb Mode

In this mode more than one display units comprise a game board 102. Eachdisplay unit displays a portion of the game layout and provides inputmeans with respective touch panels. A main display unit is fullyequipped with a full set of controls. The other display units may alsobe fully equipped with controls, or include only respective displayscreen and touch screen modules. The other display units are physicallyconnected to the main display unit and serve only as display extension,where the main display unit supplies both power and display distributiondata.

Master-Slave Mode

In this mode more than one display units comprise a game board 102 andall the display units are fully equipped with controls. One of thedisplay units is assigned to serve as the “master” and the other displayunits are assigned as slaves. The roles for each display unit areautomatically negotiated between the units themselves and are confirmedby each unit. The participating units are coupled to each other intwo-dimension forming a large display structure and communicate witheach other in order to exchange control and application relatedinformation.

Distributed Software Engine

The gaming system according to embodiments of the present invention ispowered by a software engine distributed across the system hardwarecomponents, such as, the components shown in FIG. 2. The distributedsoftware engine comprises several software packages, each of whichhandles different levels of the system, including the game board(s) andterminals, the game development environment and the web services.

FIG. 1G shows a high-level schematic representation of the distributedsoftware engine, where the software engine components are distributedbetween the game board 102, terminal 104, web-based game repository 110,and work station 106. Persons skilled in the art will appreciate thatthe distributed software engine automatically controls many of thefeatures of the gaming system, while letting some other features(related to a specific game or a specific player profile) to becustomized by the players so that they can enjoy a rich user-experiencewhile playing (e.g. personalizing the pictures in the Memory game).

Customization can be done at the web-based game repository 110, at thework station 106 (by the game developers), or locally at the game board102, as shown in FIG. 1G. Players have the option to use predeterminedgame properties loaded as default options at the board 102, at the gameterminal 104, at the work station 106, and at the web-based gamerepository 110, or customize the properties according to theirpreference. Some of the game properties may not be changed, for example,some fixed game rules are recommended to be left intact. Work station106 may be used by game developers for creating new games or newfeatures of an existing game using a game development software toolkit.Proprietary or standard communication protocols (indicated by the“comm.” functional blocks in the work station 106, game board 102, andgame terminal 104) are used between gaming system components to exchangegame-related information. Game board 102 may have intra-modulecommunication protocol to identify and communicate with multiple displayunits in one main game board or multiple main game boards, andinter-module communication protocol for identifying and communicatingwith game terminals 104.

A game board 102 may offer a generic player profile to the players,which can be customized by the players using profile manager softwaremodule, and the customized profile is saved in persistent database DB.

The web-based game repository 110 may provide various customer serviceoptions, such as, game download support (from server or from users usingpeer-to-peer services), subscription and billing management, new featuresuggestion, user feedback collection, etc.

System and Application Software Packages

The two main software packages included in the distributed softwareengine are: the “System” package, which handles the platform dependentfunctionality, and the “Application” package, that handles the gamerelated activities. The System package is responsible for managing andcontrolling different hardware elements (e.g., game-boards 102 andgame-terminals 104) and their communication, and is responsible toprovide all the services required by the Application package to executeand control any desired game independently of the actual hardware setup.

System Software Package

The system package of the distributed software engine may interpose anintermediate augmentation layer to work with an existing nativeoperating system on various system components, so as to create anapplication-specific environment. Alternatively, the distributedsoftware engine may also include a full-fledged stand-aloneapplication-specific operating system, rather than interposing anintermediate augmentation layer coupling an application layer with anative operating system. When the system package is in the form of anaugmentation layer, it provides two essential services: i. translatingcontrols between the application software and the native OS, and ii.providing game-related services not provided by the native OS. Providingthe translation services by the augmentation layer provides gamedevelopers with the freedom to develop games without regards to the OSthe game will be played upon. It also enables playing a game withseveral units, each running a different native OS. The function ofproviding game-related services makes it easier for game developers todevelop games by simply inserting calls to the augmentation layer whenneeding a service. For example, the augmentation layer may provideservices such as, rolling a dice, shuffling a deck of cards (e.g., usingrandom number generator), generating hectic sensation (e.g., byactivating vibration in the handheld unit), etc.

The system package associated with the board 102 is referred to as agame board system package. The game board system package is responsiblefor identifying the working mode of the game, examples of which arediscussed above. Upon game initialization, the main display unit of thegame board 102 looks for the presence of other display units. As long asno additional display unit is detected, the board 102's working moderemains “Single-Board mode”. In this mode, the board 102's CPU (centralprocessing unit) sends all the display information to its screen. Incase another display unit was physically detected, the main display unitvalidates the other unit characteristics over the physical connectionand moves to “Master-Dumb mode” or “Master-Slave mode” accordingly. Incase of “Master-Slave” mode, all the display units negotiate in order todetermine which board is taking the Master role.

In addition to communicating between the video controllers of thevarious display units to display the game surface properly, player inputis also managed by the board system package according to the workingmode. In Single Board working mode, the only source for player input isthe board's touch panel or key pad (or trackball, joystick, buttons,etc.) going to the board's CPU. In Master-Dumb mode, both the master anddumb touch panels or key pads (or alternative tracking mechanisms) areconnected to the main board CPU which identifies the input source andtranslates its position in reference with the entire displayed area. InMaster-Slave mode, each board's CPU receives the player input from itsown touch panel. Once received, each CPU immediately sends the inputinformation to the other boards through the communication channel. Inthis mode, each CPU works independently and acts as if it is the oneentity that manages the whole application (i.e. the application/game issimultaneously being executed on each one of the connected boards) butdisplays only the portion assigned previously by the master board.

Game board system package also handles low-level communication betweenthe main game-board and the game-terminals by implementing a datatransfer protocol to be used by the application package. The Game boardsystem package also may establish communication with web-based gamerepository, for example Q-store by Quado Media.

The system package associated with the game terminal 104 is referred toas a game terminal system package. The game terminal system package isresponsible for the display management in the terminals 104, playerinput management in the terminal 104, and the low-level communicationbetween the terminals 104 and the game board 102 by implementing a datatransfer protocol to be used by the application package.

Application Software Package

The Application software package is responsible of handling theinteraction with the players and any related game functionalities. Thepackage includes a 2D and/or 3D graphic engine and the implementation ofdifferent board games for the game platform.

The game board application package initializes the application softwaremodules, and displays the main menu (home page) allowing a player toselect any available game or sub-menu. Once a game is selected, the gameboard application package loads and displays the game layout and all therelevant game objects. The player may, by means of fingers gestures overthe touch-screen, or pressing keys, or moving a joystick, move any gameobjects and position them in any desired location. Some game objects,upon movement and interaction with other game objects, may be configuredto launch a set of pre-defined animation video clips and sounds. A gameobject may be moved by the player from the game-board 102 screen to bedisplayed on a game-terminal 104 screen and from the game-terminal 104screen to the game-board 102 screen.

The application package uses the communication services that areprovided by the system package to exchange game objects between theterminals 104 and the boards 102 as well as for sending game-relatedcontrol messages.

Other functionalities controlled by the application software may includedisplaying the game instructions upon player request (e.g., when theplayer accesses the Help menu), saving game status for restoring sessionin future, indicating playing turns in a multi-player game,adding/removing players, changing game levels, adjusting audio and/ordisplay, changing game skin, etc. In case a removable storage media isinserted, the application software may automatically launch the gamestored on the storage media, or a game menu to choose from.

The game terminal application package initializes all the applicationsoftware modules, and manages seamless visual transition of game objectsbetween the game terminals and the main game board screen. In addition,the terminal application package displays game related controls andinformation, such as, the player's points or status. The applicationuses the communication protocols that are provided by the system packageto exchange signals for transitioning game objects between the gameterminals and the game boards as well as for sending game-relatedcontrol messages.

Components of Distributed Software Engine

FIG. 2 shows a high-level representation of some of the components of anexample distributed software engine with respect to the hardwarecomponents of the gaming system and associated functionalities in oneembodiment. The broad purpose of the distributed software engine is toenable one or more players to play games interactively. Players interactwith the game board 102 (which may also be an existing appliance with adisplay, such as a TV, a computer, a tablet PC, etc., runningcorresponding parts of the distributed software engine.). Each playermay have a corresponding personal game terminal 104 (which may also be acell phone, a PDA, a remote control device, a game console etc., runningcorresponding parts of the distributed software engine as discussedbefore). One of the tasks of the distributed software engine is tomanage the players' profile for a specific game or a host of gamessupported by the gaming system. Another task is to enable seamlesstransfer of digital game pieces between and among the terminals and theboard or boards.

In FIG. 2, the thick arrows indicate many to one communication, and thethin arrows indicate one to one communication.

The game board 102 displays the shared public region of the game surface232. Game board 102 may have an input slot 212, through which a specificgame is loaded from a game repository 210. Game repository 210 may beconfigured to download games from a web-based game store 110, asdiscussed with respect to FIG. 1A, or it could be local.

Game board 102 may or may not have a native operating system 220 (suchas, Linux or Windows XP etc.). If a native operating system 220 existsin the board 102, then the distributed software engine's augmentationlayer comes into play to associate application-specific softwarecomponents with the board's native operating system 220. A portion ofthe distributed software engine associated with the board 102 controlsthe functions of a graphic engine 228. Graphic engine 228 is configuredto control the display of a game surface 232, either spread acrossseveral display units constituting the board 102, or displayed on just asingle display unit constituting the board 102. Graphic engine 228 mayor may not dynamically change orientation of the game surface 232 basedon player's viewing preference (which may be linked with the player'ssitting position). Graphic engine 228 may also launch a game'sfundamental layout, and starting position, e.g., laying out the grid ina Scrabble game, and organizing the cards in the players hand in cardgames.

Board server 222 is the “brain” of the distributed software engine forthe board 102. Note that the word “server” encompasses both the hardwareand the software associated with performing a specific function of thegaming system. However, in the context of the description of thedistributed software engine, the term “server” is used primarily to meanthe software component. Board server 222 is implemented on top of anexisting native operating system 220, or board server 222 may include anapplication-specific operating system. The board server 222 detects andregisters itself on the local network, communicates with otherdistributed software engine components, schedule games and managelicensing and caching functions of various games.

Board server 222 may implement other servers 226 for specific purposes.For example, a communication server may handle the communication andnegotiation between various software engine servers (such as the boardserver 222 and a terminal server 244), a cache server may handle thecaching of games content, a licensing server may enforce the gameslicensing policy, and so on.

Game server 224 is the active game “brain” that is spawned by the boardserver 222 when the players select a new game to start. Game server 224records and updates the game status (e.g., maintains a list of currentplayers, each player's scores etc.), manages the game flow, communicateswith the game repository 210 for additional game-related information,and communicates with other servers (e.g. cache management communicationwith a cache server).

Game package 236 includes the code, graphical objects, logic, andessential licensing information that the distributed software engineunderstands and executes. Game packages 236 are available at the gamerepository 110 on the web, or on removable storage device that can beinserted or plugged in to the board 102. Game package may also be loadedin the local hard drive of the game board 102. Game package 236 is thepart of the distributed software associated with the hardware describedas the game repository 210.

Game surface 232 is the graphic layout of the game. The game surface 232can be defined on a single board 102 (with one or more display units),or on multiple boards 102 (each board 102 having one or more displayunits). The equivalent of game surface 232 that is extended to terminals104 is called a terminal view 246. Game widgets 240 and game objects 238associated with the game are moved between different portions of thegame surface 232 (and the terminal view 246) displayed on differentmodules. A component of game surface 232 is a surface area calculationengine 230, which computes which portion of the game surface 232 isgoing to be rendered on which display unit, in the case of a multi-unitgame board 102.

A portion of the distributed software engine, called a terminal server244, resides on each terminal 104, and helps associate individualplayers to corresponding terminals 104. It may be possible toaccept/reject players or terminals on the fly during an active game, andto associate players' or terminals' positions around the board 102.Terminal server 244 is the “brain” on the corresponding terminal 104.Terminal server 244 is typically implemented on top of the terminal'snative operating system 242. For example, a dedicated game terminal mayhave a Linux-based application-specific native operating system. On theother hand, a smart phone used as a terminal 104, such as an iPhone, mayhave a native operating system (e.g., OSX) installed in it. Terminalserver 244 acts as an application server that communicates with thenative operating system 242 via an intermediate augmentation layer.Terminal server 244 communicates with the board server 222 and the gameserver 224 and manages player interaction.

A graphic engine 248 for the terminal 104 interacts with terminal nativeoperating system 242 (possibly via the augmentation layer), and controlsterminal view 246, i.e. the portion of the game surface 232 that isdisplayed on the terminal 104. Terminal view 246 usually includes a fewgame widgets 240, game objects 238, and other utilities that are used byindividual players during the game play.

Game widgets 240 are special digital widget that are necessary forparticular games. Examples of game widgets 240 are Scrabble bag,dictionary, dice tray, etc. Game widgets 240 have special function inthe game flow and usually special location on the game surface 232and/or terminal view 246.

Game objects 238 comprise movable objects of the game, such as, tiles,cards, tokens, etc. Game objects 238 have a starting location on thegame surface 232 or terminal view 246, and associated moving rules,visual rules, impact rules, etc. Players typically move game objects 238on the game surface 232 and to/from the terminal view 246. The movementof game object 246 is seamless. For example, as soon as a game object238 is ‘dragged’ out of a terminal view 246, it appears on the gamesurface 232 on the game board 102, so that a player can continue to usethe same game object 238 on the game surface 232.

Physical Components of an Example Gaming System

The gaming system according to one embodiment of the present inventioncomprises a main digital game board 102 and one or more game terminals104. The game board 102 acts as the shared public playing surface of theboard game. As shown in FIG. 3, game board 102 comprises a displayscreen 302 (e.g., TFT-LCD panel, Organic light emitting diode (OLED)display or electronic paper or any other type of flat-panel display) fordisplaying a game board layout, and different game objects and graphicelements. A touch panel 304 may cover all or most of the display screen302's surface, providing input means to the players. Other components ofthe game board include a speaker 306, a keypad 312, a video controllerunit 308, a touch panel controller 310, a central processing unit 314(which may include a graphic processing unit GPU), random access memory(RAM) 316, flash memory 317, a removable media/memory insertion slot 318(e.g., a SD card socket), removable memory 320, a battery pack 322, apower jack 324, a power switch 326, a wireless communication unit 332, awired communication unit 330, one or more magnetic and/or mechanicalconnectors/sockets 328 (to couple one board unit with other similarunits, and to connect game terminals 104), etc. Otheroptional/additional components not specifically shown in FIG. 3 mayinclude a microphone (for voice recognition interface), a vibrator forassociating haptic feedback with the touch panel 304, etc. Personsskilled in the art will recognize that not all of the above componentsare necessary in all embodiments, and there may be additional componentsin certain embodiments, but the scope of the invention is not limited bythe cited example components.

The game board battery pack 322 may comprise non-rechargeableuse-and-throw batteries or may be configured to be charged from anexternal power supply unit, which is connected to the electricity outletvia power jack 324.

The game application runs on the CPU 314 via the OS and augmentationlayer, so as to make the CPU 314 execute various operations inconjunction with the other elements of the board. The communication maybe made over a bus 341, such that the CPU can send or receivecommunication from connection sockets, wireless and wired units 328, 330and 332, receive input from the keypad 312, and send sounds to thespeaker 306, etc. FIG. 3A illustrates an example of a process executedby the CPU 314 for initiating a game session. The process initiates atStep 300 and at Step 302 the CPU publishes its existence by, forexample, broadcasting a signal over the wireless unit 332. At Step 304the board checks whether the wireless unit 332 received anycommunication from another board and, if so, it continues to sub-routineat Step 310 by registering the properties of the second board in itsmemory, e.g., RAM 316. At Step 312 the board displays the properties ofthe second board on the display 302 and query the user whether to addthe second board to the session. If at Step 314 the user indicates toinclude the second board in the session, the CPU updates a registry atStep 316 to indicate that game applications can be displayed using bothboards. At Step 318 the CPU checks to see whether another board isavailable to join and, if so, reverts to Step 310. Otherwise, itcontinues to Step 306, where it checks whether any terminals havetransmitted a request to join the session. If so, it executes asubroutine starting at Step 320 where the CPU registers the terminal'sproperties in its memory, e.g., RAM 316. At Step 322 the board displaysthe properties of the terminal on the display 302 and query the userwhether to add the terminal to the session. If at Step 324 the userindicates to include the terminal in the session, the CPU updates aregistry at Step 326 to indicate that the terminal may participate inthe session. At Step 328 the CPU displays an icon (e.g., digital gamepiece, avatar, etc.) corresponding to the terminal and shows itsposition on the board (as noted elsewhere, the position may be changedby the user, and this can be handled using an interrupt subroutine). Atstep 329 the CPU checks to see whether another terminal is available tojoin and, if so, reverts to Step 320. Otherwise, it continues to Step330 and displays the game applications available. Once a user selects agame form the displayed application, the CPU uploads and executes thegame application at Step 332.

A single display unit 402 of game board 102, as seen externally, isshown in FIG. 4, showing a display screen 302 and a touch panel 304encased in a housing 450. Housing 450 may be metallic or made of plasticor other materials. In this example embodiment, one or more sockets 430located on the side(s) of the rectangular housing are used to connectthe game board 102 to corresponding game terminals 104 (not shown) usingspecific cables. The connecting cables may feed power to the terminals104 from the board 102's power supply, if the terminals don't have theirown power source or for charging the terminal's batteries. Theconnecting cables may also serve as communication link for transferringgame-related information between the game board 102 and the terminals104. The cables may be connected to the board and the terminal usingquick-release magnetic connectors or other type of fastening mechanisms.Alternatively, game terminals 104 (or other devices used as gameterminals) may be wirelessly coupled to the game board 102, as shown inFIG. 9.

Additional game-board display units can be optionally attached to thedisplay unit 402. The units 402 may be identical to each other, or maybe an extension game board display unit which is driven by a main gameboard display unit, which serves as the ‘master’. An extension gameboard display unit may only have a subset of hardware components, suchas an LCD display screen, a touch panel, and a video controller. Forattaching one game board display unit 402 with another, one or moremagnetic connectors 428 a-b are provided on at least one side of thehousing 450. Other types of connectors may be used too. Magneticconnectors 428 a-b are designed for firm attachment with another similarunit 402. A power connector may be embedded within the magneticconnectors 428 a-b or is otherwise formed (e.g., embedded within amulti-purpose connector 429) to enable power-sharing between displayunits 402, or to enable feeding power from a master unit to an extensiongame board display unit.

The multi-purpose connector 429 is located for establishingcommunication (and/or power) link between two or more display units 402.Inter-unit communication includes sharing touch panel input,multi-screen display sharing information, seamless game object movement,routing of terminal communication received by an extension game boarddisplay unit to the master unit's CPU, clock synchronization signal etc.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment, where transfer of electronic signal betweentwo game board display units 502 are carried out through a pin array 530(magnified view shown in insert) embedded within the magnetic connectors528 a-b. Display unit 502 is very similar to display unit 402 with a fewexceptions. The magnetic connectors 528 a-b facilitate in establishingreliable contact between pin arrays 530 of two game board display unitsby securing proper alignment and firm attachment. In the embodimentshown in FIG. 5, multi-purpose connector 429 may be redundant. Also,display units 502 may have externally hidden wireless communicationports for communicating with game terminals.

FIG. 6A shows how two display units 502 a-b are aligned side by sidebefore attachment, and FIG. 6B shows how a unified dual-screen gameboard 602 is formed after the units 502 a-b are combined.

FIG. 7A shows that players have the option to keep two display units 502a and 502 b separate, each displaying the same game layout, symbolicallyindicated by the smiley faces. Another option is to spread the gamelayout between two screens, as shown in FIG. 7B. As the display units502 a and 502 b are attached to each other, the system automaticallyspread the game layout among multiple screens.

FIG. 7C illustrates an embodiment of the game wherein the main board 102includes facility to contain the terminals 104 a-104 d. In FIG. 7Cterminals 104 a and 104 b are illustrated fully deployed and positionedfor playing. On the other hand, terminal 7 c is illustrated partiallydeployed from the “docking” position in the main board, while terminal104 d is illustrated fully docked to the main board 102.

The game terminal 104, shown in FIG. 8, may be a hand-held device, whichacts as a player's personal playing zone with private personalinformation and/or public personal information in it. Game terminal 104may comprise a display screen 802 (e.g., TFT-LCD panel, OLED display orelectronic paper or any other type of flat-panel display) for displayinga terminal view layout, and different game objects and graphic elements.A touch panel 804 may cover all or most of the display screen 802'ssurface, providing input means to the players. Other components of thegame terminal 104 include a keypad 812, a video controller unit 808, atouch panel controller 810, a central processing unit 814 (which mayinclude a graphic processing unit GPU), random access memory (RAM) 816,flash memory 817, a battery pack 822, a power jack 824, a power switch826, a wireless communication unit 832, a wired communication unit 830,one or more connectors/sockets 828 (to couple via cable to the gameboard 102), etc. Other optional/additional components not specificallyshown in FIG. 8 may include a microphone (for voice recognitioninterface), a speaker, a vibrator for associating haptic feedback withthe touch panel 804, an accelerometer to enable player input by movementdetection, etc. Persons skilled in the art will recognize that not allof the above components are necessary in all embodiments, and there maybe additional components in certain embodiments, but the scope of theinvention is not limited by the cited example components. Terminalbattery pack 822 may receive power from main board 102 throughappropriate connectors/cables.

The game application runs on the CPU 814 via the OS and augmentationlayer, so as to make the CPU 814 execute various operations inconjunction with the other elements of the terminal. The communicationmay be made over a bus 841, such that the CPU 814 can send or receivecommunication from connector 828, wireless and wired units 830 and 832,receive input from the keypad 812, and send sounds to the speaker 806,etc. FIG. 8A illustrates an example of a process executed by the CPU 814for initiating a game session. The process initiates at Step 800 and atStep 802 the CPU searches for available boards by, for example,listening for a broadcasting signal received over the wireless unit 832.At Step 804 the terminal checks whether the wireless unit 832 receivedany communication from a board and, if so, it continues to sub-routineat Step 810 by registering the properties of the board in its memory,e.g., RAM 816. At Step 812 the terminal sends a request to the board tojoin the session. If at Step 814 the terminal receives a signal from theboard that indicates that the terminal may join the session, the CPU 814updates a registry at Step 816 to indicate that terminal has beenaccepted to participate in a session with that specific board. At Step806, the terminal checks whether any other terminals are available tojoin the session. This information would generally be provided from themain board/console. If so, it executes a subroutine starting at Step 820where the CPU registers the terminal's properties in its memory, e.g.,RAM 816. At Step 822 the terminal sends a signal to the other terminalrequesting to establish communication. This can be done by communicatingvia the main board. If at Step 824 the other terminal indicates that itaccepts the invitation, the CPU updates a registry at Step 826 toindicate that the terminal may participate in the session. At Step 828the CPU checks to see whether yet another terminal is available to joinand, if so, reverts to Step 820. Otherwise, it continues to Step 830,wherein, if a user selects a game form the displayed application, theCPU 814 receives a signal from the board indicating the initialproperties (available currency, cards, lives, turn in the game, etc.) ofthe terminal according to the game application.

Smart Mobile Device as Game Terminal

As discussed before, instead of a dedicated game terminal provided bythe gaming system, smart mobile devices, such as, smart phones, smartmedia players, PDAs, etc. may be used as game terminals. FIG. 9 showssmart phones 904 a-b interacting with a game board 602.

In case a smart mobile device is used as the terminal, an applicationsoftware running on the mobile device will implement all the standardterminal protocols to communicate with the game board.

In addition, the application software running on the mobile device, uponregistration, may report to the game board the device's physicalproperties (such as, screen size and resolution details) in order toallow the game board application software to tailor the relevantproperties to the device' attributes.

Packaging of the System

The game board display units may be hingedly pre-attached to each other,and placed in an external casing device such as a folding plastic caseto allow a convenient method of storing and deploying several units. Forexample, in a two-screen device, when the external casing is folded, thetwo units are vertically stacked against each other with the displayscreens facing each other.

Another packaging method is to include magnetic and/or mechanicalcontactors around the periphery of the display screen of each detachedgame board display unit, so that when two display units are stacked ontop of each other, the corresponding display screens face each other andare held together by the contactors.

The game terminals may be placed on one of the game board display unit'sback plane, and may be held securely by magnetic and/or mechanicalcontactors.

The scope of the invention is not limited by the packaging and storingmethod. However, in various embodiments of the present invention, gameboards 102 and game terminals 104 are designed to facilitate easystoring and easy deployment.

Examples of Player Interaction

This section discusses various examples interaction methods used by theplayers, which the system interprets as appropriate commands. Most ofthese interactive methods are associated with finger gestures on a touchscreen, but persons skilled in the art would understand that theseillustrative examples are not limiting the scope of the invention.

Drag—When using a movable game object like a scrabble tile or chesspiece, the player touches the piece and while touching it, moves thefinger along the display area. The selected object will follow thefinger as long as it touches the screen surface. Depending on the gamespecifics, the object will may stay (graphically) on the game surface(e.g., in a chess game), may be “lifted up” when moving around to avoidcollision with other objects (e.g., in the Checkers game). In casemultiple display units are involved, the moving game object may be movedfrom one display unit to the other by continuous “dragging” across theboards.

Spin—When using a spinning object like a roulette wheel or carousel, theplayer touches the object and while touching it, moves the finger in thespin direction and then lifts the finger up. The object will startspinning to the selected direction using the finger movement speed todetermine the spinning speed.

Throw—When using a game piece that requires the player to throw itacross the board, like a dice, the player touches the object, which willgraphically “elevate”. While touching the object, the player moves thefinger in the throwing direction. The object will follow the fingermoving velocity and direction, and the moment of release to determinethe bouncing scheme. In case the object collides with other gameobjects, it will change its direction accordingly until it will come toa halt. If an accelerometer is incorporated into the handheld device,the user may simply shake the handheld device, e.g., to shake the dice,and then gesture as if to spill the dice out of the handheld device.

Object exchange between different modules—In order to move objects fromthe shared public zone to a personal public/private zone, and viceversa, one option is to graphically define a “gate” on the display area.Once the object is dragged into the players “gate”, it will disappearand reappear onto another display screen. To move from the terminal tothe board, the player will drag the object towards a physical boundaryof the display screen, and once most of the object body will cross theborder, it will disappear from the terminal and reappear at the player's“gate” on the main board. The gate may be located near the terminal'scable socket or location.

Page Flip—In case an game object resembling a page, a page flippingemulation can be done by touching the page corner and moving it to theopposite direction

Collision—In case two objects are colliding, collision behavior may beemulated with visual, audio, or audio-visual effects.

Push—When a finger is moved gently touching a movable object, the objectwill be ‘pushed’ along with the finger movement.

Hit—Unlike the push gesture, in case the finger moves fast enough whentouching a movable object, the impact will simulate a hit, where theobject will bounce to the finger's movement direction.

Flip—In order to flip a card or tile, the finger will touch the object'scenter and while touching, will move fast toward one of the card edgesand then will release the touch. The object will be flipped withanimation effect.

Write—Using a stylus pen or finger on a predefined area, the player canwrite or draw, if required by the game.

Zoom out and in—Using finger pinching or expansion, a player may zoomout or in on certain portion of a game surface.

Rotate board—Special control on the board, on the user terminal, orgesture on the board layout enables to rotate the entire board andpieces to the user side. The same function may take place automaticallywhen the user turn arrives as part of the game play.

Physical buttons or keypads, mouse, virtual keyboards, joysticks,trackballs, touch pads, etc. may be used instead of a touch screen tointeract with graphical objects on a display screen.

It should be understood that processes and techniques described hereinare not inherently related to any particular apparatus and may beimplemented by any suitable combination of components. Further, varioustypes of general purpose devices may be used in accordance with theteachings described herein. It may also prove advantageous to constructspecialized apparatus to perform the method steps described herein. Thepresent invention has been described in relation to particular examples,which are intended in all respects to be illustrative rather thanrestrictive. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that manydifferent combinations of functional elements will be suitable forpracticing the present invention. Moreover, other implementations of theinvention will be apparent to those skilled in the art fromconsideration of the specification and practice of the inventiondisclosed herein. Various aspects and/or components of the describedembodiments may be used singly or in any combination in the relevantarts. It is intended that the specification and examples be consideredas exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention beingindicated by the following claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A distributed gaming program for a gamingsystem having main console coupled to a main monitor and a terminalcoupled to a terminal monitor, the gaming program comprising: a boardserver having executable instructions that, when executed by the mainconsole, causes the main console to perform the tasks comprising: senddisplay information to the main monitor; manage user input at the mainconsole; and, handle wireless communication between the main console andthe terminal; a terminal server having executable instructions that,when executed by the terminal, causes the terminal to perform the taskscomprising: associate a user with the terminal; wirelessly connect andcommunicate with the main console; receive user input and communicatethe user input to the main console; and, selectively operate theterminal in one of a game terminal mode enabling playing a game or aremote controller mode enabling controlling of the main console.
 2. Theprogram of claim 1, wherein when the terminal server operates theterminal in a game terminal mode, the terminal server sends to theterminal monitor private portions of a game running on the main console,and when the terminal server operates the terminal in a remotecontroller mode, the terminal server sends to the terminal monitor thesame image displayed on the main monitor.
 3. The program of claim 2,wherein when the terminal server operates the terminal in a remotecontroller mode, the terminal server sends to the terminal monitorzoomed image of the main monitor display.
 4. The program of claim 2,wherein when the terminal server operates the terminal in a remotecontroller mode, the terminal server sends to the terminal monitorshifted image of the main monitor display.
 5. The program of claim 2,wherein when the terminal server operates the terminal in a remotecontroller mode, the terminal server continuously synchronizes displayof the terminal monitor with that of the main monitor.
 6. The program ofclaim 2, wherein when the terminal server operates the terminal in aremote controller mode, the board server sends to the terminal serverinformation about changes on the main console.
 7. The program of claim2, wherein when the terminal server operates the terminal in a remotecontroller mode, the terminal server operates the terminal to remotelycontrol digital game pieces on the main monitor.
 8. The program of claim1, wherein the terminal server enables the user to switch between realgame view and simulated game view.
 9. The program of claim 1, whereinthe terminal server enables the user to exchange digital game objectsbetween the terminal and the main console or other terminals.
 10. Theprogram of claim 1, wherein the board server causes the main console tosend game assets to the terminal.
 11. The program of claim 1, whereinthe board server causes the main console to send digital game objecttogether with coded rules associated with the digital game object to theterminal.
 12. The program of claim 11, wherein the coded rules compriseat least one of: indication where on the terminal monitor the digitizedgame object should appear, at what size the digital game object shouldbe displayed, and special animation that should accompany the transferof the digitized game object.
 13. The program of claim 1, wherein theboard server causes the main console to publish its availability toenable discovery and connection by the terminal.
 14. The program ofclaim 1, wherein the board server causes the main console to enforceuser rights.
 15. The program of claim 1, wherein the board server causesthe main console to display a board game on the main monitor and torotate the display of the board game to the user side automatically aspart of playing the board game.
 16. The program of claim 1, wherein theboard server causes the main console to utilizes the full screen of themain monitor for game play and enables to access system navigation andconfiguration functions through floating dashboard.
 17. The program ofclaim 1, wherein the main console comprises a touch-screen tablet andthe board server is configured to operate on the touch-screen tablet,and the terminal comprises a smart phone and the terminal server isconfigured to operate on the smart phone.
 18. The program of claim 1,wherein the terminal server is configured to operate on the terminal toenable a user to perform at least one of: privately browsing game rules,consulting game strategies from available suggestions, consultingreferences, taking private notes, and planning privately next gamesteps.
 19. The program of claim 1, wherein when the terminal serveroperates the terminal in a game terminal mode, the terminal server usesuser input to control images on the terminal monitor, and when theterminal server operates the terminal in a remote controller mode, theterminal server uses user input to control images on the main monitor.20. The program of claim 1, wherein the board server operates the mainconsole to access game repository via the Internet.
 21. A distributedgaming program for a gaming system having main console coupled to a mainmonitor and a plurality of terminals, each terminal having a terminalmonitor, the gaming program comprising: a board server having executableinstructions that, when executed by the main console, causes the mainconsole to perform the tasks comprising: send display information to themain monitor; manage user input at the main console; and, handlewireless communication between the main console and each of theplurality of terminals; a plurality of terminal servers, each havingexecutable instructions that, when executed by the correspondingterminal, causes the corresponding terminal to perform the taskscomprising: associate a user with the terminal; wirelessly connect andcommunicate with the main console; receive user input and communicatethe user input to the main console; and, selectively operate theterminal in one of a game terminal mode enabling playing a game or aremote controller mode enabling controlling of the main console, whereinwhen the terminal is in the remote controller mode the displayinformation of the main monitor is replicated on the terminal monitorand a user's action on the terminal monitor is replicated on the mainmonitor.